Problems of Education in the 21st Century

5-8

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

It is obvious that the educational model to the XXI century is oriented at goals of Sustainable Development. This topic is becoming very trendy and urgent in and outside Lithuania. Recent correlation with nature carries a problematic character. D.Birnbacher proposes that “bearing in mind the increased people’s possibilities to influence the future of humankind and other conscious beings, responsibility for the future generations… is an incontrovertible duty” (Birnbacher, 1980). None of the environment protection laws could tackle problems of ecology as a huge part of a contemporary society produces a primitive ecologic culture and very often is completely illiterate. Therefore, the tasks of primary ecology education are to foster ecologic pupils’ culture and raise their ecologic consciousness because the past and present life offers a great number of lessons in ecology including ecology catastrophes, anthropogenesis impact on nature (20th century), etc. Moral responsibility for natural (environment) preservation is relevant as never before today. Hence, the ecologization of the world outlook of society is also crucial.

19-29

Authors: Anne Bonnevie Lund

In 1998 Norway ratified the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, and in1999 the Romanies and four other minorities obtained the status of a national minority group The Romanies have lived in Norway for hundreds of years. But the assimilation policy was hard and lasted for more than hundred years with the aim to assimilate and eradicate differences from what was perceived as the "Norwegian". The school has been an important part in this assimilation policy. Although we can see a different political climate marked by multiculturalism, acceptance of diversity and greater understanding of minority groups today, the culture and history of the national minorities has been, and still remains absent from school. And still many students of Romani families drop out of school without any exams when they are 13-14 years old. In this article a developmental project with the aim to make a better school situation for Romani students is examined concerning an attempt using ICT in the travelling periods. The use of laptops have made changes in the relational and communication patterns connected to an intercultural understanding, but many pupils still drop out of school before ending the compulsory school.

42-51

Authors: Luljeta Buza, Hektor Buza, Elida Tabaku

The paper is an empirical study based on questionnaires of 450 postgraduates’ students, and 30 teachers enrolled in different courses in Tirana University. It aimed to identify the problems and to find out some solutions to the problem focused on the wide availability of information and communication, which makes learning take place wherever and whenever it suits the student. The study highlights the way how education can be organized to ensure quality and lifelong learning. The study, based on the analysis of questionnaires, pointed out that it is considered as not efficient if lifelong learning is focused only on short-term requirements. The teacher educators had quite a number of concepts on lifelong learning, and their perceptions were concentrated on: 1) developing a range of skills; 2) being able to identify problems; 3) ways of tackling, finding and using information effectively; 4) understanding and extending ways of learning to gain and apply new knowledge. The paper is divided into two parts. Part one outlines the key issues related to the importance of lifelong education and part two analyzes lifelong learning approaches, conclusions and recommendations.

66-78

Authors: Angela James

Pre-service Biology student teachers completed a module/course on Research and Service-Learning as part of their professional development. This module expected of student teachers to take new actions in that they were to work with the lecturer and a manager from a community organization to conduct a Research and Service-Learning project. This paper reports on two student teacher groups experiences of the project. The research questions that drove this paper are: What were the pre-service student teachers’ experiences of their Research and Service-Learning project? An interpretive and qualitative approach was used. An action research case study methodology with document analysis, reflective journals and class discussions was used. The data collected was analysed using a descriptive case study, providing narrative accounts for each of the student teacher groups. The data reveal the emotional, cognitive and social dynamics that the student teachers experienced. The conclusion reached is that this project is an essential component for the professional development of any Biology pre-service student teacher, especially in the South African. It is essential in that the pre-service student teachers can address poverty, hunger, impact of HIV/AIDS and develop an understanding of the learners that they teach.

90-102

Authors: Peter Odera, Rossette K. Murigande

This paper was based on survey research design that aimed at examining caregivers’ involvement in children’s play in Rwanda. Random sampling technique was used to sample out 89 respondents from 4 different locations. The sample of the study included 40 caregivers, 40 children and 9 social workers in Compassion assisted projects. Compassion is non profit making organization. Data was collected through interview schedules and observation. The findings revealed that the most important variables that influence the perceptions of caregivers were the age of children and education background of caregivers. Majority of caregivers were more favourable to children’s play, especially those children at a younger age. However, caregivers reported that as children grow older, they should take domestic chores and school work seriously rather than spending time in play. The more caregiver had formal education, the higher the likelihood that one would have a positive attitude toward children’s play. Besides, the gender of children, age and also, the gender of caregivers were found to be less significant factors. This study has concluded that the more caregivers were knowledgeable on the importance of play, the more they were willing to facilitate children’s play and the more they actively encouraged children to participate in play.

124-131

Authors: Agnese Rusakova, Andrejs Rauhvargers

One of the most important problems of the next decades in the context of lifelong learning is the integration non- formal and informal learning achievements of individuals with formal learning so that non- formal and informal learning can be used for their formal promotion –gaining credits and/or whole qualifications. One of the means for integrating the achievements is through translating knowledge, skills and competencies obtained through alternate forms of learning into learning outcomes (further in text- LO). It is necessary to implement LO approach in the formal system of education to prepare it for recognition of prior learning. The objective to be reached is understandable and so is the rationale to do so. However unclear is the way how to translate the theory into a working practice. In the following article the authors will address this problem by proposing and examining a methodology for implementing LO in a program, discussing the possibility to improve the quality of program through this action. The LO approach reflects change from „teacher-centered” to „student-centered” learning. The first results of surveying the lecturers involved in the analyzed program show that the LO are currently implemented rather formally. It is necessary to do more explanatory work in order to benefit from the LO as quality instrument.

5-9

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

It is obvious that many scientists nowadays speak about constructivistic approach in education. This topic is becoming very trendy. Is it correct to focus our attention only to the study of this topic? This is a really complicated issue. There are quite a large variety of opinions, as well as controversial. First of all it is obligatory to perceive the idea of integrated science education in the context of constructivism as a theory of learning. Secondly, it is important to understand and name the specificities of integrated science education implemented following the principles of constructivistic teaching/learning. Thirdly, it is necessary to be able to predict the possibilities of integrating the content of different subjects of science related to the specificities of students at different age stage as well as to material and human resources (Lamanauskas, Vilkonienė, 2008). Generally speaking previous studies implied that the development of a constructivist-learning environment could contribute positively to changing student attitudes toward science learning (Oh, Yager, 2004). However, we can not make an one-sided evaluation. Who can deny that the traditional teaching and learning is wrong?

21-28

Authors: Geert Franzenburg

The process of historical research, learning and teaching consists of data-sampling, interpretation and communication. Researchers, learners and teachers have to cope with de- and reconstructing historical experiences and their documentations as expressions of impressions. Therefore, the objectives of the study are historical experiences documented in autobiographical texts and in archival material. Following the different lessons/modules of a course about biographical history, students can learn how to become aware of certain aspects behind historical facts and events, which are often hidden in documents or neglected by textbooks. They become motivated to make their own experiences in this method by using oral history elements (interviews) and to look for alternative points of view in learning and research.

43-57

Authors: John Gowland-Mwangi, Agnes Oywaya Nkurumwa, Stephen Wambugu Maina

Kenya’s Jua-Kali sector offers an alternative to formal employment. Though one needs technical and soft skills to work effectively, the latter are critical for successful entrepreneurship and unless Jua-Kali operators are trained in soft skills, they cannot function effectively. A trainer requires knowledge of what they need, lack and extent of deficiency. A cross-sectional survey design involving 230 randomly selected operators was used to provide this information. Extension experts ascertained the questionnaire’s content validity whose reliability was 0.93α at 0.05 confidence level. The operators were 15-71years old with 69% married, 65% male, and 99% formally trained. Soft skills’ mean acquisition was 55% at primary, 61% at secondary and 71% at tertiary level and was independent of gender; >90% of the operators lacked but required all 18 soft skills. Males dominated jobs requiring higher capital and more physical strength while females dominated jobs requiring lower capital and less physical strength and also the food sector; The sector accommodated people of all ages, majority being self-employed; on-the-job training was inadequate; and teaching soft skills within curricula was the best training modality. The researchers recommended mainstreaming formal provision of soft skills; training using the best modality and encouraging more people to join the sector.

67-76

Authors: Peter Karlsudd

Special needs teacher education in Sweden has by tradition been pragmatic and action-oriented. The higher degree of academization the education is now undergoing has revealed deficiencies in the concluding essay project. A low problematization degree, poor grounding in theory as well as undeveloped analyses are among the explanations of the low quality. This article describes a development project conducted at Linnaeus University with a view to improving the quality of student essay writing. With the overarching aim of making students aware of the quality criteria involved in essay writing, students and teachers assessed essays on the basis of 24 different criteria. Initially worked out by teachers, the criteria were developed and supplemented in dialogue with students. After the appraisal the conformity of assessment between student-student, teacher-student and teacher-teacher was presented. The result demonstrates that disagreement exists in the assessment. Teachers and examiners assess the quality of the essays as being somewhat lower in certain respects than what students do, whereas they may give higher values on the basis of other criteria. However, individual differences in assessment among teachers are not fewer than among students. There are clear differences in the evaluation of method, theory grounding, innovativeness and creativity. Subsequent discussions have led to clearer quality requirements for essays and have also to some extent reduced the former interpretation gap.

87-98

Authors: Thomas J.J. McCloughlin, Philip S.C. Matthews

Repertory grid analysis was employed as a means of constructing representations of learners conceptions of living things (described in previous work). Experts in biology and secondary school science learners were probed for their representations of living things. Clearly, a theory is at work in the mind of the experts. The question now is: how many of the students share this theory? A record of commonality is required, and for that a social network framework is necessary. Therefore, representations were compared using the SOCIO program which measures the similarity between individuals and a visual network produced for the groups studied. This work is part of an overall project examining the learners’ innate ability to classify and categorize living things. Classification and categorization are neglected in science curricula which has implications with respect to the renewed emphasis in education on learning about biodiversity. It was found that whereas there is a commonality with respect to learners’ conceptions, the commonality is measurable and that learners often operate within a ‘pre-scientific’ or folk-biological mode, experts operate within a highly formalized mode based on their training, and that notwithstanding such a difference in modes, there remains a degree of commonality between learners and experts.

109-121

Authors: Viktorija Piscalkienė, Nijole Zinkeviciene

Methods of fairy tales could be applied not only for educational aims but also for diagnostics in socio educational practice. Analysis of children’s created fairy tales is one of the ways to know his/her inner and outer worlds. Child’s emotional state could be evaluated from his/her created fairy tale text. Child’s created fairy tales show his/her social skills and allow to evaluate cognitive sphere. Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder tend to have cognitive processes dysfunctions and lack of social skills. During the research, fairytales created by two groups of children were assessed. The first group was represented by primary forms pupils with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the other group consisted “natural” population children of the same age. The fairytale content analysis helped to disclose the tendency that in the group of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder positive psycho-social content of fairytales seldom predominates. Their fairy tales were with less developed consistency, simple sentences, and from the cognitive point of view less “mature”. The paper discusses the application possibilities of projective methodology – fairytale creation on the basis of visual stimulus – in assessment of children’s with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) cognitive sphere and psycho-social sphere. The authors point out that so far educational science both in Lithuania and abroad lacks methodologies of analyzing fairytales created by children.

138-150

Authors: Hasan Şeker

The study reveals that the beliefs of the prospective teachers related to learning-teaching approaches can not find reflections in their practices. The present study investigates whether the prospective teachers’ preferences and beliefs concerning the teaching approach find reflections in practices. The study was conducted with two study groups. The first group consists of 70 last-year student teachers of Primary School Teacher Education Department of Education Faculty, and the second group with 33 second-year student teachers at the same department. One of the measurement scales used in the study is the preference list for teacher behaviors consisting of 38 questions each of which is with two options, and the other is the lesson scenarios written by the prospective teachers. The inconsistency between the prospective teachers’ beliefs about teaching approaches and their practices can not be accounted for by the perceptions of teacher competences. Incorporating teaching practices into the curriculum of the prospective teachers can narrow the gap between the prospective teachers’ beliefs about teaching approaches and their practices.

162-173

Authors: Lyubov V. Cheremoshkina, Svetlana V. Murafa

Research results of mnemonic abilities of 7-12 years children with developmental delays are presented. Research aim was experimental investigation of productivity and qualitative identity of mnemonic abilities of younger students with developmental delays. The method of development of mnemonic activity by V.D. Shadrikov, L.V. Cheremoshkina and the technique of mnemonic abilities diagnosis developed on its basis by L.V. Cheremoshkina were used for the study of mnemonic abilities. Research consisted of several stages: pilot study, experimental research (the test task - memorizing of a card #1; the basic task - memorizing of cards #2 and #3; reproduction of cards #2 и #3; poll of students), mathematical data processing, classification and description of levels of mnemonic abilities development of younger students with developmental delays. Revealed, that the structure of the mnemonic abilities of 7-12 years children with developmental delays differs by underdevelopment of operational mechanisms. Memory functions are based on use of inborn mechanisms. There are children who differ by certain underdevelopment of perceptive abilities and attentional abilities. Operational mechanisms of mnemonic abilities of 7-12 years students with developmental delays are at early stages of the formation. At the analysis of results the effect of inability to copy a simple nonverbal material after its correct reproduction by subjects is revealed. Assumptions of its possible reasons are discussed. This effect needs the further explanation in terms of psychology of abilities, neuropsychology, and neurophysiology.

5-7

Authors: Andris Broks

As a result of tremendous development of science and technology our modern life has become very complex. Diversity and speed has become the main characteristics of our life today. Actual changes in life always are followed by corresponding changes (reforms and transformations) in education, because education means specially organized gaining of life experience for life. Life experience – it means not only knowledge, not only knowledge and skills, but all together knowledge, attitudes or values and skills (Broks, 2010). Education as a process of gaining life experience includes not only traditional learning/teaching, but also development of corresponding value orientation – attitudes. This note is very important today when globalization processes have initiated a loss of clear value orientation for future development of human’s life on global as well as on local scale. World needs more clever and honest people tomorrow when we have today.

19-29

Authors: Claudia Ayres, Celeste Ferreira, Agnaldo Arroio

The purpose of this research was to discuss and reflect about the use of a computer simulation in the learning of intermolecular forces. Simulations are dynamic representations of chemical processes or systems, and allow users to select values for input variables from within suitable ranges and observe the results on output variables. In this study we used free software named “Ligações Intermoleculares”, from http://nautilus.fis.uc.pt/molecularium/pt/ligintermol/index.html. The goal of this activity was to help students build internal representations (mental models) for course content. The research is qualitative. We applied a pre-test and a post-test to a class of students (n=30) from a secondary school trying to find what these internal representations are like. The research indicates that students’ pictographic representations of intermolecular forces improved substantially. These findings suggest that the use of this visual tool helped students to make a better connection between the chemical representations and the macroscopic phenomena presented during a mini-course about solubility.

38-48

Authors: António Barbot Silva, Cláudia Abrantes, Elisabete Oliveira, Carla Chumbo, António Alberto Silva, Maria João Silva

Because of their very nature, virtual models are usually more abstract than physical ones. Physical models may facilitate the use of virtual models, by making links to physical world. Tides come into play in a wide variety of curricular scopes, but they are not easy to understand, both in basic education and in initial teacher training. In addition to this, simple physical classroom experiments about tides are not easy to conceive, and they may even be misleading. In a previous work, one of the authors developed a virtual model: a computer simulation of tides. It reveled to be useful, although not covering some students’ learning needs: it was too abstract and mathematical for most of the students. There was a need of complementing the virtual model with material ones (“added reality”). Two physical devices were then developed: a “physical model for tides” and a “physical model of grass growing in artificial gravity”. The two physical models proved to be feasible and useful. The set of three models revealed to create synergies in learning.

58-65

Authors: Martin Bílek, Jarmila Kmeťová

In the article we deal with the topic of Virtual Measuring Devices working in the computer supported measuring system in general chemistry education. We discuss the theoretical base for application of experiments in the chemistry education and its computer support. Attention is focussed to specific features of chemistry, alike to other natural sciences lay in observations of the course of chemical experiments and in forming conditions for their repetition and changes. Then, it is clear that the intellectual activities participate in every senso-motoric (or only sensory, and only motoric) activity. Dominant, or rather starting, activities in the theoretical procedure will be intellectual ones, while sensorimotor activities work in the empirical procedure. When implementing the computer support into experimental activities, the adequate combination of measuring systems, simulations and “data-processing” programmes may result in a new environment for using experiments. The computer thus may make the inductive, deductive or combined procedures easier and evidently. One of the challenges for school chemistry experiments is so-called “single-step mode” measurement method. Three types of this mode are discussed and examples provided: single-step mode on one experiment, single-step mode on comparison of samples and single-step mode on a set of experiments. Presented examples of class chemical experiment were carried out in the Vernier system, very simple applied in computer labs with science orientation.

75-83

Authors: Solange Locatelli, Celeste Ferreira, Agnaldo Arroio

This paper is a theoretical discussion about three important concepts related with chemistry learning. The terms visualization, metacognition and metavisualization were reviewed in the literature, in regard to aspects of definition and importance as constructors of knowledge in science education, especially in chemistry. There is a stead growing body of research that recognizes the importance of being metacognitive in the learning process. Also, given the frequent use of visualization in chemistry instruction we began to encounter studies that suggest that metacognition in respect with visualization exits and it’s referred to as “metavisualization”. Particularly, this term has been perceived as a metavisual skill, where the student will monitor and regulate specifically their internal representations, helping him to build concepts in science. Many definitions have been found about these terms, however there seems to be a uniformity to consider its importance in the learning process of students, which allows us to conclude that there is still a great demand for research in this area to clarify many aspects regarding these cognitive and metacognitive processes.

95-105

Authors: Mateja Ploj Virtič, Mateja Pšunder

Different information and communication technologies have become part of the necessary competencies, as teachers are educators of the web generation, which is characterised by its members using the computer in each aspect of their lives. The use of the computer is specific for each individual field of teaching and as such cannot be directly compared. This article presents the results of a survey into how the field of study influences the use of ICT and the computer in future teachers. The participants in this study were 252 forth-year students from three faculties from University of Maribor, which educate future teachers: Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Education. Our research has shown that students of natural, technical and computer science provided the most positive feedback about the availability of computers at the faculty, their performance, software, internet access at the faculty and internet access in their town of study. Future teachers expressed a more positive opinion on statements relating to the necessity of using the computer in class than on statements relating to their competencies for using the computer in class.

114-119

Authors: Margarita V. Shishonok, Eugene V. Makarenko

The results of statistical analyze of the lectures form effect on the progress in studies are presented. Two variants of lecture material representation are compared: the classical lecture with the use of traditional blackboard and chalk and the lecture in the form of slide-show. The results of ten examinations (for the last eight years) on the discipline “Chemistry of high-molecular compounds” has been treated. The significant increase (54 %) of excellent marks share and the decrease (25 %) of unsatisfactory marks share has been revealed as a result of the progressive lecture form as slide-show.

130-138

Authors: Andrej Šorgo

This article describes a six-step approach used for the introduction of computer-supported laboratory exercises in Biology teaching. Following the model students will be guided from recognizing a problem question to the end report in a series of active tasks. The model was named APACER as an acronym of the six steps: Ask, Predict, Act, Comment, Evaluate and Report. The model was tested with 15 – 18-year-old secondary school students as group and individual work over a time span of ten years and several hundred students performing laboratory exercises in Biology. Work on development of the model can be described as reflective classroom practice. By observation of students’ work, grading of their reports and evaluation of results from exams, it was recognized that students achieved much higher grades because of better knowledge and improved reports. Transfer of the model to other Science subjects is suggested.

5-8

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

The title of the article does not promise a positive attitude towards education. The reader can feel impressed that the only purpose of the author is the criticism of education with no positive points. However, this is a wrong position as any vivid detail can be clearly noticed. On the other hand, both positive and negative sides need to be considered and in this case, improvement and modernization are not the only ways. A steady increase in welfare is a myth, thus there is no need to discuss which area of life looks is described. When mentioning progress in education and modernization, we must face the other side of the road full of phenomena of degraded education which is not new in Lithuania. The last decade has generated discussions on this issue at different levels, although this is unfashionable and finally useless from different points of view. The most pressing problem is that the concept of degraded education has not been accepted as reality up to now. Therefore, the above introduced points should be plausibly argued.

20-29

Authors: Bernard W. Andrews

ArtsSmarts, a national arts education initiative, supports artists collaborating with teachers to implement arts instruction in partnership with school and community organizations. This study was undertaken after policy interventions were undertaken by the partners to refine 214 arts education projects across Canada. Findings indicate that the projects emphasized student exploration, creativity and arts integration across the curriculum, and teachers undertook an increased role in organizing and participating in the projects. Most projects were offered at single sites in urban settings, and projects were extended over the school term to increase their impact on learning. Visual arts was the most common arts discipline and grade five was the dominant grade level in which arts partnership projects occurred within the national arts program.

41-50

Authors: Martin Bílek, Ivana Šimonová, Jan Lašek

The paper deals with research activities run at the University of Hradec Kralove, Faculty of Education and Faculty of Informatics and Management, Czech Republic, which relate to information and communication technologies implemented in the process of instruction in various subjects. Particularly the role of a virtual learning environment (VLE) is mentioned and discussed, and information about core current projects is provided. The project work is understood to be a tool of VLE reflection, which is considered both from generally accepted points of view, and some new approaches are also introduced.

60-86

Authors: Michalis Evripiotis, Vassilis Orfanos

The introduction of technology in general and especially information technology in education is a big change in the educational concepts which has taken place during the last two or three decades all over Europe. Besides, Europe through the process of continuous education improvement tries to maintain maybe the unique but also so much decisive comparative advantage that it possesses against all the other countries of our planet that is nothing else but the quality of its human potential. This article presents with brevity the important steps that the main European countries have made in the introduction of modern technologies of information technology in the primary and secondary education, as well as the process and the problems of their introduction in the Greek school. We believe that this experience will be very useful in a country like Lithuania that has already made very important steps in this sector simultaneously with its successfully continuing transition in the market economy system.

97-104

Authors: Blanka Frydrychova Klimova

The article firstly discusses cultural differences between Western and Central European cultures as far as the academic register is concerned. Moreover, the fact why Czech students have a lack of experience in writing is explained. Secondly, the most problematic areas – linguistic and stylistic – (e.g. articles, word order, indirect speech, long sentences, register . . . ) the first-year students at the Faculty of Informatics and Management in the Czech Republic have to pay attention to when they write an academic paper in English are being analyzed. Thirdly, a new approach to writing at a university level is introduced and a few challenging assignments how to make writing more attractive are explored in the article. Thus, the reader might experience how students increase their communicative competence in writing, their motivation, cultural awareness and responsibility when, for instance, they write an article for Wikipedia.

124-136

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas, Violeta Šlekienė, Loreta Ragulienė

It is accepted that ICT makes the process of teaching/learning more effective and beneficial whereas the education system starts functioning faster. The development of ICT and the process of globalization determine alteration in the education system as well as in the whole society. The implementation of new technologies in the educational process raises new possibilities for both teacher and learner, enhances education quality and makes the educational process more versatile. A crucial point is that employing ICT must be highly efficient in the process of training would-be teachers of sciences. The students graduated from comprehensive or upper secondary (gymnasium) schools have a broad knowledge of mastering ICT the major part of which are PCs, palmtop computers, mobile phones, different kinds of audio, video and digital players etc. In this case, we encounter a problem of how to properly develop the acquired abilities in the further process of studying. Thus, the object of our research is the ability of the fourth-year undergraduates to use information and communication technologies. The aim of research is to gain information concerning the fourth-year students’ opinion on the application of ICT in the process of studies. The research A Student and Information and Communication Technologies was conducted in January – March, 2010. Research sample consisted of 322 respondents who were 4th year university students. To analyze research data, the measures of descriptive statistics (absolute and relative frequencies, popularity/usefulness/necessity indexes) have been applied. The surveyed fourth-year undergraduates have almost unlimited possibilities of using a computer, mobile phone, the Internet and an electronic data storage device - USB flash drive. The students almost daily use the basic functions of the mobile phone (writing SMS, calling). However, calling to other people using a mobile phone and sending SMS are a more frequent occupation of females as male students are tend to search for information on the Internet and send and receive e-mails. Considering all aspects of using information and communication technologies among the surveyed fourth-year students that graduated from city or regional schools, no statistically significant deviation has been noticed.

146-157

Authors: Jane Mattisson, Teri Schamp-Bjerede

This article discusses an on-going pilot project for improving essay writing at Kristianstad University, Sweden. It presents a so-called boilerplate which has been designed for Master’s-level English students. This e-learning tool is used as a cognitive tool that facilitates learning with as opposed to learning through technology. The boilerplate is part of a joint learning system (Kim & Reeves, 2007) in which there are three equal participants in the learning process: the tool, learner, and activity. As technology is increasingly implemented in education, there is a need to understand pedagogical processes that not only take into consideration the student, but how the technology is used by the student. Our paper discusses the e-learning tool created at Kristianstad University, and looks at the first, preliminary results of its use in connection with pedagogical issues, usability, and interaction.

166-178

Authors: Ineta Ruškuvienė, Dalia Augienė, Domas Auga

The article analyses structural and intensity features identifying parents and pedagogues’ social attitudes towards education of disabled children. The performed research allows to assert that the structure of attitudes towards educability of disabled people contains the following components: recognition of personality and social value of a disabled person, recognition of their abilities, pedagogical pessimism, fatalism, humanistic pedagogics, segregation, inferiority of a disabled personality and their family, orientation to social – every day education priorities, the underestimation of special education needs, archetypical fears of socializing with a disabled person, pedagogue’s function as a family substitute. In fact, all these components integrate into two main educability construct dimensions, pedagogic pessimism and pedagogic optimism. Features of commonness and individuality identify parents and pedagogues’ social attitudes towards educability of mentally disabled people. Commonness lies in the educability model, its structure. Individuality means that parents’ social attitudes towards educability of their disabled children are oriented (with respect to attitude intensity) to a person, whilst pedagogues’ – into education and integration process. The intensity of parents and pedagogues’ social attitudes changes depending on social –demographic factors. The attitude’s intensity (positive and negative evaluation range) to their disabled child’s educability is conditioned mostly by parents’ psychological state. Professional motivation, age, professional activity place, the type of educational institution condition pedagogue attitude’s intensity the most.

5-7

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

An international cooperation is undoubtedly an important issue. Science is science and it has an international character. Moreover, such cooperation is crucially important for scientists from former Soviet Union countries, because they had no possibility to communicate with colleagues from abroad or such cooperation was strongly limited. It is obvious if we want to obtain the necessary scientific information about different things, to enlarge technological possibilities of societies and so on, generally speaking, to make our world more safe and better, international cooperation among scientists is essential. Only all together we will be able to meet a broad range of global challenges today and tommorow.

16-24

Authors: Yordanka Dimova, Margarita Panayotova, Darina Uzova

The article aims to introduce the reader with the results from the second part of a survey on the concept of “Nature” in the minds of 13-year-old Bulgarian students. This time, we focus on the question: What biological objects and knowledge are reflected in the verbal associations of the students? The method of study used is a chain associative experiment carried out following the S (stimulus) – Ri (reactions) pattern. Each participant is required to write down the first 7 words that come to their mind when the word "nature" is pronounced. 1400 reactions are used to reconstruct the associative fields objectifying the conscious and unconscious layers of the cultural concept of ‘nature’ in the linguistic consciousness of the participants (100 students in the 6th and 100 students in the 7th grade). We analyze 988 words-reactions that have connection to the biological aspects of the concept of “Nature”. We have also described how the associative experiment became a stimulus for organizing a competition for best painting and essay on the subject of “Me and Nature” at a school in Sliven.

33-44

Authors: Janis Gedrovics, Jari Lavonen, Jekabs Raipulis

In the last few decades the analysis of data, obtained from different science and technology education related international surveys, has produced some new viewpoints such as the diversity of cultures, the trends of globalization, different theories such as postmodernism, self-determination. Within those researches different reference factors have been investigated to obtain results, possible to explain different phenomena observed in the society. In our research some indexes such as Human Development Index (HDI) and Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) normally used in sociological research have been used with the aim to find correlations with the international ROSE (The Relevance of Science Education) project data. The items in the ROSE questionnaire are measuring students’ general interest in science and technology and their interest in different content and contexts of science and technology as well as students’ science and technology related experiences. Based on our analysis, there were relatively high correlation between the mean values of different national ROSE variables and responding HDI index.

54-63

Authors: Tuula Keinonen, Sirpa Kärkkäinen

In science and environmental education, one of the objectives is to prepare students for participation in the decision making. To be able as an informed citizen to make decisions, it is important to learn to present an argued point of view. The everyday sense of argumentation suggests that participants present claims, defend their claims, and rebut the claims of their opponents. The study focuses on practising university students’ argumentation in an authentic situation and also the way students argue. University students familiarized themselves with a proposal to change a provincial plan. After reading the plan, they assumed to the role of a resident of the area in question and wrote to the planners starting their opinion. We had two different cases: the first case was in science education course and the other case in environmental education course. In the second case students wrote to the Wiki-environment and the opponent commented on the argumentation. These writings (N=17) were analysed by content analysis. Although the students used scientific knowledge, especially ecology, in their argumentation, it often consisted of personal feelings about the effect of the plan on their own lives.

76-86

Authors: Simeon Mbewe, Vivien Mweene Chabalengula, Frackson Mumba

This study explored pre-service teachers’ familiarity, interest, and conceptual understanding of science process skills. A sample comprised ninety one primary school pre-service teachers at a university in the Midwest of the USA. Participants were enrolled in two science education courses; introductory science teaching methods course and advanced science methods course. The introductory science methods course is mainly focused on developing science process skills among pre-service teachers while the advanced science methods course is focused on content and pedagogical knowledge. Data were collected through a questionnaire. Results showed that pre-service teachers had higher familiarity and interest levels in science process skills, but very poor conceptual understanding of the science process skills. Their incorrect definitions of science processes ranged from not having any idea to tautology. Moreover, most participants interchanged definitions of some science processes notably measuring and quantification; and predicting and inferring. The findings have implications for science teaching, learning and teacher education.

99-108

Authors: Sławomir Postek, Maria Ledzińska, Jakub Czarkowski

Our main focus is to highlight the most important challenges in distance education aimed at adults: specific psychological challenges coming from adult development, the problems of quality and evaluation, and the effect particular distance education forms and their content (interactivity, salience, and multimedia additions) have on adult learning. In the opening section, theoretical grounds for how adults learn, treat learning, how they function in informational stress and in the role of a pupil are presented. This is than followed by the discussion of pedagogical aspects (motivation, self esteem etc) of results evaluation and didactical difficulties of planning high quality distance learning. Finally, a review of research results into how different types of material content affects adults’ perception and comprehension and how retention and transfer and influenced in effect. In the summary, we move on to discuss how b-learning (blended) and c-learning (complementary) could be employed in order to facilitate adult distance learning and propose research fields to explore in this area.

117-129

Authors: Tiina Tambaum

In summer 2009, a qualitative study among the late middle-aged and older people in Estonia was carried out in order to find out the functions of the Internet for the older generation and the expectations and fears of the elderly for the Internet. By this study, it was tried to find out what are the needs of the elderly for which they prefer to use the Internet; what kind of contents or functions do the elderly miss in the Internet; what kind of role-taking and contents are unpleasant or scaring for the elderly Internet user. Semi-structured interview was used, 34 elderly Internet users were interviewed during seven interviews. The study indicated that the interviewed elderly find the Internet primarily as an environment for everyday practical operations and it is not perceived as an entertainer. Of the contents available in the Internet, the elderly are disturbed by the negativism, superficiality, obscenities, humiliation and excessive concentration on the topics of private lives. The waste of time and the risk to express itself incorrectly or wrongly are felt as dangers of the Internet usage among the elderly. The article gives recommendations for carrying out the Internet training for the elderly and explains which Internet functions and contents could be chosen as the content of the Internet skills training in order to create and maintain the interest and satisfaction of elderly learners. The results referred to the need to continue the study on the expectations of the elderly Internet users and to study thoroughly the attitude especially of the elderly men to the Internet as a tool of communication and the role of the Internet games in the lives of the elderly and Internet training.